The present invention relates to voice recognition units or systems (VRUs) for enabling users to remotely obtain information in an efficient and accurate manner from a database using voice commands and/or responses over a telephone system. More particularly, the invention relates to a VRU system that enables users to obtain information regarding return, warranty, replacement and/or repair of previously purchased products from an electronic product registration (ER) system, such as the type disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,978,774 and 6,018,719, the disclosures of which are incorporated by reference herein in their entirety.
Electronic registration (ER) systems rely on the use of a unique identifier, such as a serial number, for each product that is purchased. The serial number is obtained at the point of sale for inclusion in a registration database, together with other information, such as a date of transaction. This database can then be accessed in connection with an attempted product return/warranty transaction for the purpose of determining if the product qualifies for return/warranty under applicable return/warranty criteria (which is also stored in or made available to the system). Such electronic systems may also be used in connection with repair and/or exchange transactions, in addition to returns, by enabling an accurate determination as to whether the product qualifies for any of these actions under the appropriate policies and criteria under which the product was originally sold.
The ER system uses pre-established return/repair policies and procedures that are programmed into the system so that the system can perform a check when a product is presented for return to determine if the product qualifies for return, replacement and/or warranty repair based on sales transaction information available in the ER system for the particular product at issue. Thus, known ER systems include a database of return qualification information (or warranty/replacement criteria) for various manufacturer's which enables the system to make an accurate determination with respect to whether or not a particular product or item (that is uniquely identified by the system using a serial number or other unique identifier) actually qualifies for return (or warranty/replacement) based on the appropriate qualification criteria. Such ER systems have greatly reduced improper and fraudulent returns and warranty claims.
ER systems have, in the past, used a unique identifier for each product that is registered, thereby enabling the system to provide return qualification information respect to the particular product being returned. Voice recognition systems for accessing the ER database have also been based on unique identifiers. Thus, in the past, products that do not include a unique identifier associated therewith have not been able to be incorporated into ER systems for access by VRU systems.
Voice recognition systems have been successfully used in the past in connection with electronic registration systems for purchased products for the purpose of enabling users to obtain information about return, warranty, replacement and/or repair of the purchased products. Voice recognition (VRU) systems have been used in the connection with such electronic registration (ER) systems to enable remote access to the registration data that is collected by the ER system. Due to the fact that the ER systems have been based on serialized products (i.e., products each having a unique serial number), the VRU systems used therewith have also been based on the use of serial numbers. An example of a VRU system that uses serial numbers is disclosed in PCT application No. PCT/US01/25296 filed Aug. 14, 2001, and entitled “Voice Recognition Method and Apparatus Using Dynamic Link Library”, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein.
While such VRU systems have proven to be very useful in their current forms, additional improvements in such systems are still desired in order to provide additional functionality that will benefit customers, retailers and/or manufacturers. To this end, the instant invention provides an improved VRU system that has increased functionality, by providing an enhancement to known VRU systems that enable information on non-serialized products (i.e., products that do not have a unique identifier) to be accessed by users in a manner that is similar to the serialized VRU systems.
In accordance with the invention, the improved VRU system enables non-serialized data or identifiers to be used to access return/warranty qualification information that applies to a class or group of similar products. For example, in accordance with the invention, model numbers or other non-serialized data (such as UPC or SKU numbers) that do not uniquely identify a particular product can be entered into the VRU system for the purpose of obtaining return and/or warranty information for the product. The invention enables information to be accessed through a VRU on products that may not have been originally intended for electronic registration, due to, for example, their price, nature or other characteristics. The invention also enables products that have already been sold without collecting registration data at the point of sale to be added into the ER system for access by the VRU system.
In accordance with the invention, the VRU system accesses a database that has been previously loaded with information on model numbers (or other non-unique identifiers) and applicable return and/or warranty criteria for products having these model numbers. The database may also contain serialized information so that the VRU system can perform serial number (or other unique identifier) lookup operations and model number (or other non-unique identifier) lookup operations. Thus, the instant invention enables non-serialized products to benefit from electronic registration in substantially the same manner that serialized products have and are currently benefiting from electronic registration. While the non-serialized information does not provide the same level of accuracy as a serialized system, in that specific sales information on a specific product is not available for the non-serialized products, the information is still useful in making logical decisions about whether or not the product qualifies for return or warranty based on information in the system about the entire class or group of products to which the product belongs.
In accordance with one aspect of the invention, a voice response system is provided for use in obtaining return qualification information for a product using a non-unique product identifier. The voice response system includes: a dial-in system operable to prompt a caller for the non-unique product identifier, wherein the non-unique product identifier identifies the product as a member of a defined product group; a product registration database including a plurality of different, non-unique product identifiers; a return policy storage that defines return policies for each of the non-unique product identifiers; and an arrangement that looks up a specific return policy for the non-unique product identifier entered by the caller and provides information to the caller regarding return qualification for the product identified by the non-unique product identifier.
In accordance with another aspect of the invention, a method is provided for operating a voice response system. The method includes: storing different non-unique product identifiers into a system; storing a return policy in the system for each of the non-unique product identifiers, wherein the return policy defines criteria under which products having the non-unique product identifier associated with the policy can be returned; prompting a caller using a dial-in voice system for a non-unique identifier associated with a product for which a return is desired; Looking up the entered non-unique identifier to determine if it corresponds to one of the stored non-unique identifiers in the system; if the non-unique product identifier does correspond to a stored non-unique identifier, obtaining a stored return policy for that non-unique product identifier; and communicating return qualification information based on the stored return policy back to the caller through the voice system.